Wednesday, December 31, 2008

I just got these images made of "Guardian Angel", a four-color screenprint on six pillowcases. Each pillowcase is slightly altered using dyes, stains, and ink. I printed the familiar prayer, Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, twice in two different colors then the angel over that. You can what it all happen in this YouTube Video:

Saturday, December 27, 2008

I'm excited to announce that my newest (and still ongoing) series called Emerging Surfaces is featured in ArtSync Magazine this week. Check it out by clicking this link: http://www.artsyncmag.com/pages/links/mixedmed.php.You'll be able to read more about my processes and even see several time lapse videos on YouTube.

Friday, December 26, 2008

This year, the general consensus was to do something other than the traditional turkey or ham for Christmas dinner. We searched through our cookbooks and decided on Beef Wellington, a dish that we had never tried to make before but looked simple enough. Little did we know that a 7 pound beef tenderloin would cost so much, but Christmas is as special an occasion as they come. As the old Pearson saying goes, "damn the expense, give the canary another seed".

I had fun decorating the loin with my 4-year-old niece Emily, who decided on a floral motif cut from puff pastry. The meal was delicious. We also had my hubby's famous scalloped potatoes, my mom's favorite veggie: brussel sprouts, yeast rolls, salad, baked beans with prosciutto ham, and a lemon bunt cake.

The best part of the day was when we all watched a DVD slideshow of some old family photos. I made it as a gift to my mom, who cried her eyes out and said she would treasure it always. It was a nice way to remember my dad, grandma BeBe, great grandma Woods, and others who aren't with us anymore.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Monday, December 22, 2008

After a long journey, we finally made it to Poplar Bluff, Missouri to spend time with my family during the holidays. It always takes a day or two to get adjusted to sleeping in a different bed and getting into a new routine. I'll probably always think of PB as "home" only because my family still lives here. I always get here and realize how much I've changed. I have moved around so much I have come to know many places as home. The truth is "home" is where the heart is and I'm thankful that I'm able to spend this Christmas with my hubby, my family, and my two special little guys.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

So, today we realized that having two dogs makes traveling a little more complicated. We are on our way to Missouri for the holidays. Justin and I consider ourselves to be savvy when it comes to traveling, we've both done a little globe trotting and have learned to pack light and plan ahead.

We intended to get an early start on the day but was delayed when lil' Stuart Little rolled in his own poop and needed a bath. Then we gave Pucci a bath, which caused excitability and called for another trip outside. Of course, these two won't go at the same time. When we started packing the car it was soon filled to the brim with crates, carry day bags, tiny clothes, plastic bags, toys, swaddling blankets, more clothes in case of an accident, little jackets for the cold Missouri weather, tins of food, bags of dry kibble, fish oil tablets to keep their fur soft, and fluffy floor pillows! Justin and I managed to get ourselves bathed, dressed, and packed...all the while juggling one dog who was whining for attention and one who we couldn't let out of our sight because he isn't house trained yet. We put them in our bed for a nap and they started fighting. We had to separate them without making one feel less loved than the other. One peed on the floor and had to be rushed outside while I mopped up the urine and made up a cooler full of food for us to eat tonight in our pet friendly hotel (we don't eat out anymore, dogs aren't welcomed there).Downstairs we go but they need to poop first so we walk around the block, picking up the mess along the way. Once we made it to the car, there was a squabble over who would ride on my lap - neither would give way so they flopped down on top of each other. Two minutes into our 15 hour drive we realized that we needed to stop off at PetCo for some last minute necessities and a better fitting harness for lil' Stuart Little. Once out of the car both had to pee. The store was a holy terror! Dogs big and small roaming around like animals (ha), caged cats taunting them with their "come hither" purrs and mews. It was obviously Stu's first time in a store and he as spastic. Pucci was barking at all the other dogs and every kid in the joint just had to pet the cute chihuahuas. By the time we got Stu fitted for his new harness, paid, and made it out the door, they both had to pee. Then Pucci decided to be defiant and refused to walk to the car. Then of course there was the struggle for the coveted lap position again. And it's hot in Wilmington today, so Justin and I are sweating, tired, and starting to get snippy with each other. Phone rings of course, and the dogs are jumping around like a racket ball. But I love them so I guess it's worth it. They look like angels when they're asleep!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Ok, so here's my most ambitious leather project so far. As you can see, it's more of a sculptural wall piece than a wearable mask, however, it's based off my previous mask ideas. This piece took nearly a whole side of leather and is 3 feet high by 6 feet long. I started out by drawing the flowing hair onto paper and then transfered it to the leather as usual. A lot of hours went into this because I wanted it to be all one piece of leather, and I wanted the hair to look graceful, kind of like it would in water. It seemed to take forever to cut it all out. It was so huge I had to soak it in the bathtub and lay it out on towels in my living room. As I worked from the face outward, I used damp towels to keep the tips wet. I worked at an extremely fast pace to try and shape it all in one go. I worked non-stop for 4 1/2 hours just getting it shaped. Luckily, my trusty heat gun helped speed things up and by the end of the day I had something I liked. Believe it or not, the tips of my fingers were raw nubs when I finished. Yikes!! But it was worth it. I took it to my studio the next day and painted the back with a clear coat of spray paint to help give it some structure and then hit it with a coat of metallic taupe spray paint. I got a little weak after emptying those two cans and realized that I would be a terrible mother because my chihuahua was asleep inside my coat the whole time. While laying in the grass outside my studio, waiting for the air to clear and wondering if my lungs would ever recover, I pondered the idea of being a mother and decided against it when I pictured my studio with a makeshift crib holding an infant sleeping restlessly under a heavy fog of carcinogenic fumes. "It'll never work," I told myself when it dawned on me that respirators don't come in a size "tiny".

This is a photo with a more dramatic light on it. It took several hours to paint the front because I used two different acrylic metallic colors and blended the shadows and highlights to add even more depth.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

I just received word that I was awarded a Regional Artist Project Grant again this year from the North Carolina Arts Council. I'm very excited about this because I'm planning on using the funding to do some encaustic work.

FYI: Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface — usually prepared wood, though canvas and other materials are often used.

The simplest encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that can be used — some containing other types of waxes, damar resin, linseed oil, or other ingredients. Pure, powdered pigments can be purchased and used, though some mixtures use oil paints or other forms of pigment.

Note: images courtesy of R&F Handmade Paints.

Jasper Johns brought this age old painting technique back when he started working with it in the 50's. Johns created texture in this flag painting by dripping wax over a collage made from recycled materials.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Meet the newest member of the Pearson family...2-year-old Stuart Little. Stuie is a tiny Chinese Crested Chihuahua. We adopted him yesterday from Saving Grace, a wonderful animal shelter in Wake Forest, NC. Believe it or not, this little guy has been living in the wild his whole life. When he was brought in he looked like a river rat and had no hair. He's been at the vet for a month, gaining his strength back. He now weighs 3.5 pounds but is still nothing but a bag of bones. He is so starved for love that he will leap into the arms of anyone who will catch him and give them kisses on the lips (gross) but sweet. Pucci is slowly accepting his new little brother. In time they will be best buds...we hope.

Monday, December 15, 2008

The ACME gang celebrated the holidays with an ornament making party at Arrow and June's place last night. The Danish "Glog" was a little strong for me but we all indulged our childlike artist nature when it came to cutting our way through mounds of colorful old magazines.

I ended up making this bird using several scraps from a magazine cover:

Thursday, December 11, 2008

I made these ornaments from some of the leather I had left over from my masks. Pretty cool. I've sold several so far but you can still get them at the Edge of Urge on Market Street, Downtown Wilmington.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Since this week's pick sold so quickly, I decided to post another. This is a little mixed media piece I did when I lived in Newcastle and was inspired by all the doors and windows I would pass by each day as I walked around. It's called "Newcastle Architecture #4", the fourth in a series of eight. It is ready to hang without any additional framing. Be the first to email and this original artwork can be yours for only $95. WOW!! (Buyer pays shipping, but it is small enough to use regular USPS).

Sunday, December 7, 2008

This week's pick is an unframed drawing of an orange bell pepper. It's done in ink and colored pencil and is about 30" x 24". Inexpensive to ship too. What a great gift this would be for any foodie. Be the first to email me and this original artwork can be yours for only $85. WOW!!

What a grand time we all had yesterday at our ACME Christmas Art Show and Sale. Nearly everyone sold artwork. It was my first year at the Christmas show and honestly, I didn't expect much. I brought in my little sack lunch, planned out what artwork I was going to work on, and intended to treat the day like any other Saturday. So I was extremely surprised when people started coming in and out at a pace so steady that I had to ask someone to watch my studio so I could just take a bathroom break. I only had a chance to sit down for a few minutes the whole day. From 10-8 pm I was sharing my artwork with visitors and best of all, my sales from masks and unframed work totaled about $600. I finally had a chance to eat my sack lunch at about 9 pm when I got home. Ha ha. For anyone who didn't get a chance to stop by yesterday, I still have lots of affordable work including framed and unframed woodcut prints, silkscreen prints, collagraph prints, small oil paintings, leather ornaments and masks, t-shirts and totebags with my original designs silkscreened on them, and of course large scale artwork in various styles.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I just finished up the last mask commission - a cowgirl. Now, while this might sound like a small task, it was actually pretty limiting. I decided on a regular face with "make-up", added exaggerated eyelashes, and finished it off with some white fringe (which is kind of hard to see in the photo). The other face mask is just something for someone who wants a mask but doesn't want to cause a scene.